Pakistani President in Stable Condition After Heart Attack

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari was in stable condition Wednesday after reportedly suffering a heart attack and will remain under medical observation in Dubai, amid growing pressure from the powerful military to stand down.

"The doctors have yet to determine whether the president's condition was due to adverse reaction to the medication he was taking or a development related to his pre-existing cardiac condition," the office of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said in a statement.

The statement did not specify whether or not the president suffered a heart attack, and it did not say when he would return to Pakistan.

Mustafa Khokhar, the minister in charge of human rights, earlier said Zardari intended to return to Islamabad on Thursday and would not resign.

"He had a minor heart attack on Tuesday. He flew to Dubai, where he had an angioplasty. He's in good health now. He will come back tomorrow [Thursday]. There's no question of any resignation," Khokhar said.

Pakistan's presidency previously dismissed reports that Zardari had a heart attack, describing them as "speculative" and "untrue," the Associated Press of Pakistan reported. A presidential spokesman said Tuesday that Zardari traveled to Dubai for regular medical checks and to see his children.

A report in US magazine Foreign Policy said that Zardari was "incoherent" during a telephone call with US President Barack Obama on Sunday to discuss the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a NATO air strike.

The report quoted a former US official as saying Zardari was under growing pressure from the military over a scandal that led to the resignation of his ambassador to the US. "The noose was getting tighter -- it was only a matter of time," the former official said.

Pakistan's military said Zardari underwent a checkup with army doctors and was declared fit, Pakistani daily The News reported. But in the same report, a presidential spokesman denied the president saw army doctors.

Hussain Haqqani, the former ambassador, resigned amid allegations that he was involved in an effort to engage the US to curb the army's powers in Pakistan.

He stood down amid allegations that he authored a memo asking for the US to exert pressure on Pakistan's army not to stage a coup after the US raid that killed Usama bin Laden in May. The memo, in return, offered to overhaul Pakistan's national security team to make it more amenable to US goals in Afghanistan.

Zardari, 56, took office after his Pakistan People's Party (PPP) won general elections in February 2008, three months after his wife, the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated.